Tolls up, whether you want them or not

I was reading this afternoon's top story, and of course it reminded me of all the other times every tax has been increased in the decades I've been living in New Jersey,

Gov. Jon Corzine said today that even if his toll plan is scotched, it's likely tolls will rise by 50 percent anyway.

Whether you like it or not, because

The state has committed to a $2.5 billion widening the New Jersey Turnpike between Middlesex and Mercer, Corzine said, and there are other plans on the table the state is obligated to, such as the $3 billion ARC tunnel under the Hudson River and a litany of bridges in need of repair.

How many times have we heard this before?

The bridges need repair, the turnpike needs widening, the tunnels need building, or drilling, or painting, or whatever.

What the Governor - who has no excuse not to realize, considering his financial background - is not saying is that the state is broke, that it has neglected infrastructure for so long that most New Jersey residents weren't even born, and that the proposed toll hikes are only the very tip of the debt iceberg. While he mentions that "we must move as expeditiously as possible because the state will have to make December payments on its debt" the question remains, how will any future maintenance be financed?

More to the point, if there is a rush because the toll increase needs to go towards paying the current debt, how much of the toll increase would actually pay for anything other than debt?

Gov. Corzine's not remembering to mention the debt limitation clause, which says that the public should vote on more governmental borrowing. Would you vote for the toll scheme?

I'm sure many of you remember when the tolls were raised to fund the public schools, or the seniors, or the roads (yet again).

Tolls are quick cash, in a way. People have to pay them. Unfortunately when you are so deep in debt that the list of bridges needing repair is referred to as "a littany of bridges" and you have no money to repair them, the quick cash is going to disappear as fast a morning fog in a hot Summer day at the shore.

And then we'll be getting another toll increase, and another, and another...